CMC Retired. CM A School, Port Hueneme, CA 1969. Active duty with the Naval Nuclear Power Unit from March 1970 to July 1978. Wintered over at McMurdo in1972. Drilling reserve until Jan 1994. 26 years, one month and 16 days total.

I enlisted in 1969, and went to basic training and hospital corps school in San Diego. I did my internship on the Burn ward, and that was one incredibly awful experience. Following that, I went to OR Technician school in Corpus Christi, Texas (which was one year OJT.) Following that, I went to Optician Technician school for six months in Williamsburg, VA. That completed the first two years of my enlistment, and then the Navy decided it was time for me to go to work. I spent the last two years of my enlistment at Cherry Point, NC, where I was POIC of the Eye Clinic, and I also stood night/weekend duty in the ER.

There were about 10,000 grunts on the base at that time, and about 9,999 of them got drunk and fought every weekend...so we got to see and repair a lot of them in the ER. When we pulled ER duty, we were on watch from 1700 on Friday until 0800 on Monday, and in theory we were supposed to be able to sleep sometime during those hours...however, most of the time we were seeing patients non-stop during those hours. I've sewed up or otherwise patched up many a drunk Marine, and almost all of them were incredibly grateful for me just doing my job.